Everybody says they want to hear good news but that desire doesn’t necessarily pay the bills, as they’ve just seen in Andover.

The Beacon is a monthly local newspaper that personifies the opposite of “if it bleeds, it leads” journalism. Created 22 years ago by Charlie Darling, the paper “was made to be nice, not reporting on crime or bad news,” said Shelley Geoghegan, the paper’s editor, publisher and only full-time employee. “The Concord Monitor can do that.”

For more than two decades the Beacon has filled its 32 pages with positive items about local happenings and events and people in Andover and surrounding towns from Franklin to New London and sometimes a bit beyond. News and pictures were sent in by readers or volunteers, then edited and laid out into a broadsheet paper. Copies were mailed free to town residents – the original mission of the nonprofit Community Publishing of Andover included that as a commitment – and sold by subscription to about 300 folks beyond Andover’s borders.

The paper’s annual budget of around $100,000 was supported by advertising, subscriptions and a healthy dose of donations. While it was never rolling in riches – the Beacon almost closed three years ago – it kept going.

Until now. The final edition was mailed out this week.

“It’s a tragedy,” said Geoghegan. “As much as everyone wanted it to continue, it’s not sustainable to have to worry every month, every week, if you can make it another week.”

The cause is simple, she said. “We’re seeing fewer ads, fewer donations, fewer subscriptions.…We all know newspapers are struggling and smaller community newspapers are struggling even more.”

The Beacon, like many non-profit organizations, kept going through a lot of work, which also can be unsustainable over the years. “Charlie used to do 60-80 hours a week and he warned me about it,” said Geoghegan, whose regular tasks range from chivvying donors to editing and laying out the paper to troubleshooting software to emptying the trash.

She started as a bookkeeper a decade ago and has taken on other tasks as Darling gradually stepped aside.

One obvious idea is to ditch the newsprint and go digital-only. Geoghegan says this has been floated, but the cost savings are less than you would expect, and the change would hurt readership.

“A large number of people still want the printed paper. They still want to hold the paper in their hands. People in their 80s, 90s, tell me ‘I can go online to see everything’ but they still want the Beacon in their hands,” she said. “But it’s not just the older demographics, there are still a good amount of other ages who want to hold the paper.”

The region isn’t entirely devoid of hyper-local news: It still has the Intertown Record, a similar weekly that is based further west but reaches Andover. And spurred in part by the pandemic lockdowns, many more organizations and local governments post their own announcements through websites, email newsletters, Facebook postings and the like.

Geoghegan said it’s possible that someone else will pick up the mantle and try to re-create the Beacon in some form, just as Darling did after earlier papers had closed in Andover.

Whatever happens, she said she has been glad to be part of the Beacon history. “I feel honored to have been here, working for this community.”

Ty Morris of Coldwell Banker Real Estate in New London is the board’s current president with Doug Phelps of Andover as vice president of the board. Morris helped the paper get an office in The Andover Community Hub, which increased its visibility.

David Brooks can be reached at dbrooks@cmonitor.com.